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Knuckle Heads

Hello all and welcome to this weeks Budget Brews! Winning is nice, but it isn’t our main goal here at Budget Brews, instead we just try and have some fun! We tackle a few different ways to build here at Budget Brews, we either look at trying to make the more competitive decks cheaper on the wallet, or we just come up with something new that’s easy on the wallet!

I’ve been having some fun playing with the MTG tribes so, we’re going to stay on that track this week. So far we’ve covered Faeries, and Slivers, this week?

Probably the most expansive of the major tribes in Magic, Goblins have a long history in the game even being printed in the games first set Alpha.

Typically red, the goblins are usually portrayed as having low level intelligence and having an affinity for artifacts, as we see a goblin jumping to grab one in Mogg Fanatic. They’ve been seen on every plane in the story with the exceptions of Theros, Innistrad, and Ulgrotha (Homelands).

Don’t stereotype Goblins by any means however, they’ve been shown in all five colours of the MTG Colour Pie with some even belonging to the Ravinica guilds of Boros, Izzet and Gruul. One of the Goblin lords, Mad Auntie, even comes to us in Black.

With there being more than 30 different kinds of Goblins throughout the story lines, there’s too many for us to go into here.

Some notable Knuckle-heads however include the following:

Squee, from Dominaria is probably the first well known goblin in the story line was a member of the Weatherlight crew and is depicted in Squee, Goblin Nabob

Kiki-Jiki, from Champions of Kamigawa, is probably more well known in the actual game than in the story thanks to Modern combo players everywhere who like to play Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with Splinter Twin.

Krenko, is a favourite among more casual players, and those of us who want to play some Commander. Found on Ravnica, he’s usually seen as a mercenary for hire who’s guildless and shows compassion towards his fellow knuckle-heads.

As far as Goblins being played as a deck, well… Sligh, or Red Deck Wins has always been a thing in Magic’s history, and Goblins used to be a well established archetype in Legacy. It used Aether Vial and land destruction to starve your opponent’s resources while you attacked with a flurry of one and two drops.

The deck runs right around $72 at TCGPlayer Market Price, and is a blast to play. If you’re in the mood for some tribal aggro synergies. Goblins will probably be your best bet. While it may not play like the classic legacy Goblin decks and try to starve your opponent of resources with Wasteland or Rishadan Port the deck does promise to get in fast, and thanks to combat tricks and Goblin Lords, our knuckle-heads can take the heat of battle pretty easily.

The Winning Goblin’s

The first two in this short list, are probably the most important of the bunch. Playing them either with the Kicker, or for it’s Surge cost buffs the team and gives the ones you just played haste so you can get in there for tons of damage.

Legion Loyalist gives your knuckle-heads some combat tricks when he attacks with the team. Giving them First Strike and Trample will not only help save your team in battle, but it’ll help make sure some crucial points get through.

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

The first two in this list are there just to give us extra bodies. Mogg War Marshal gives us an extra body when he enters the battlefield, and if you’re sitting at four mana, following him up with either of the Bushwhacker’s just gives us more attacks. When he dies, he also leaves behind a friend.

No Sligh, or Red Deck wins is complete without 4 Lightning Bolts it does double duty in either acting as a shot gun to the face or cleaning up a troublesome creature on the board and lets you attack through them.

Goblin Grenade is well… fun. We’re making enough small bodies that sacrificing one of them for the good of the tribe, is an acceptable loss, and trading a 1/1 for 5 points of damage to the face, and possibly winning the game is something I’ll sacrifice all day everyday.

If you’re looking to upgrade the deck into something more competitive I’d give a look into cards like Goblin Guide, and if I learned anything from watching GP DFW this past weekend it’s that Blood Moon can be a helluva card to try and play through.

That’s all I got this week Budget Brewers!

Thanks for joining me while I try to Untap the Multiverse!

Have an idea for something you’d like me to brew up? Give me a shout in the comments!
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